Cafe au Lait
by Pet Serrano
Title
Cafe au Lait
Artist
Pet Serrano
Medium
Painting - Digital Oil
Description
Cafe au lait (coffee with milk") is a French coffee drink. The meaning of the term differs between Europe and the United States; in both cases it means some kind of coffee with hot milk added, in contrast to white coffee, which is coffee with room temperature milk or other whitener added.
In Europe, cafe au lait stems from the same continental tradition as cafe con leche in Spain, kawa biała (white coffee) in Poland, Milchkaffee (milk coffee) in Germany, koffie verkeerd (incorrect coffee) in The Netherlands, and cafe com leite (coffee with milk) in Portugal (and also in the South American country of Brazil). In northern Europe, cafe au lait is the name most often used in coffee shops.
At home, cafe au lait can be prepared from dark coffee and heated milk; in cafes, it has been prepared on espresso machines from espresso and steamed milk ever since these machines became available in the 1940s thus it refers to the usual coffee + milk combination, depending on the location, not to a specific drink.
Cafe au lait and caffe latte are used as contrasting terms, to indicate whether the beverage is served in the French or the Italian way the former being in a white porcelain cup or bowl, the latter in a kitchen glass and always made from an espresso machine, whereas Cafe au lait might be espresso or dark coffee based.
In many American coffeehouses, a "cafe au lait" is a drink of strong drip brewed or French pressed coffee, to which steamed milk is added; this contrasts with a "caffe latte", which uses espresso as a base. American cafe au lait is generally served in a cup, as with brewed coffee, being served in a bowl only at shops which wish to emphasize French tradition.
The term misto (literally, "mixed") is also used to refer to a cafe au lait, most notably by Starbucks.
Cafe au lait in New Orleans has been popularized contemporarily in part by Cafe du Monde. There, it is made with milk and coffee mixed with chicory, giving it a strong, bitter taste. Unlike the European cafe style, a New Orleans cafe au lait is made with scalded milk -- milk warmed over heat to just below boiling -- rather than steamed milk. Inclusion of roasted chicory root as an extender in coffee became common in colonial Louisiana, and eventually was incorporated as a regular coffee additive. The bitterness of the chicory offsets the sweetness of the powdered-sugar-covered beignets, a common accompaniment.
(Primary source: Wikipedia)
Uploaded
December 29th, 2011
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